I snort because I’m not sure my nephew knows what emotions are, but I get Lio’s point. Instead of answering, though,I look at Roman and sign my thoughts. He chews his lip. As he knows Leandro best, he’s aware this will probably piss the boy off, but then, it wouldn’t be a punishment otherwise.
“Fine,” he finally voices.
“What am I missing?” Lio asks. “I know what you fingerspelled, but I’m still behind in my ASL lessons.”
Roman leans in and whispers in his ear. Lio thinks it over before nodding. “Yes, that will work. It might not make my Family happy, but once I remind them that the point of a punishment is the lesson and the forgiveness given after, they’ll fall in line.”
Roman pulls his phone out and rolls his eyes at whatever’s on the screen. “Stop eavesdropping,” he says aloud.
Lio laughs a little while I shake my head. There’s a reason I signed my idea rather than voiced it. Leandro…is a nosy asshole.
“Can I trust you to give him our final decision later?” I ask Roman.
He nods. “Yeah, it might be easier coming from me.”
I agree. Leandro doesn’t trust, and the circle he does is very small. When it comes to those on his guard…well, there’s a reason he didn’t tell anyone about Oliver and who he really was. Now though, that’s going to come back to bite him in the ass. Oh, well, he better hope Tennant is too busy with other shit to kill the guard once he’s demoted.
“This brings me to something that was brought up in the other meeting,” I tell them. Two pairs of green eyes meet mine, and I take a breath, trying to get my thoughts in order while feeling very under-qualified for this.
“When we broke off from Cristian and Allesandro, our Family pledged their loyalty to us as individual leaders. I do not believe any of them, or us, fully understood what was going to happen. We knew we had to get out, that what was happening was destructive for us all. However, we didn’t discuss anythingbeyond that. From the very beginning, we’ve done everything together. Every single big decision we’ve had to make, we came to an agreement as a whole.”
They both nod in agreement. “I didn’t think about it,” Roman says. “It came so naturally to work with the two of you, and forming this Council…I never thought of doing it any other way.”
“Me either,” I tell them. “Which is what made it easy for me to step up and lead while you two were gone. But it circles back to something Antonio brought up. He and Marcus…after Allesandro was hurt, and Marcus brought him here, they fought. I’m sure you two are aware that Antonio took particular offense to Allesandro’s past actions.”
Lio winces. “Yeah…”
“He brought up that they were in two different Families now.”
Both of them stare at me with wide eyes. “But…what…that’s…” Roman looks to Lio for help, but our fellow Boss just shrugs.
“This is the issue. We,” I motion between the three of us, “Might see this as one, but other people don’t, not even our own Family. So, I propose we change that. We make it very fucking clear, to everyone, that we are the Council, and siamo molto più forti di quanto nessuno di loro sarà mai separato.”
Roman’s lips twitch. “Council? That's all you got?”
I shrug. “Do you have a better idea? I may be the head of the De Luca Family, or what’s left of it, but I am not, and will never be, a De Luca. I may no longer be married to Cristian—or won’t be soon—but Iaman Amato. I will not give up my name to fit someone else’s comfort. We need to have a singular name that distinguishes us from the other Organizations, and this is how we do it. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be defined by what my surname is or isn't. Not if I want to heal from thepast.” I hesitate and look at Lio. “Unless you would like to be recognized to the wider world as a Martelli?”
Lio flinches. “I… No. The Martelli Family ended when Allesandro relinquished his place as Il Padrone.” Roman lets go of Lio’s hand and wraps an arm around his friend instead. “Unlike you, I don’t have the same memories or trauma my father’s name brings. Yes, my brother tried to kill me, but…” He raises his chin, a flash of defiance in his emerald gaze. “He failed at tearing out who I am and what I stand for.” His breath hitches. “The Martelli Organization is no more, and I refuse to put my Brothers through any more heartbreak by telling them they have to follow under a new name. Not when Il Padrone gave us our identities, a home, something none of us had before. So… I can stand before them, and ask that they follow us under the Council, without stripping any of us further away from who we were.”
I nod, understanding completely. It’s part of the reason I am keeping my Amato name. Cristian can see what he turned me into, what he turned both Roman and I into—the leaders this Family deserves.
“With us unifying, becoming a true Council of equals…I propose we do some reorganizing.”
Roman frowns. “What do you mean?”
Running a hand through my hair, I say, “Something I’ve noticed, with Jude especially, he says he is—not Roman’s Second, but aCouncilSecond.” I give them a moment to turn my words over. “There’s a distinct difference there, I think. And I want to capitalize it. As is, we are too separate. If we truly want to take this Family into a new era, we need to tear down the old and come back with something new. No more Seconds.” They stare at me in surprise. “I am not saying we don’t need them, we do. Otherwise, we’ll be dealing with too much day-to-day shit, and not looking at the bigger picture. We’d be too burnt out.
“No, we need people who can pass down our orders and edicts, who can listen to people’s grievances, and who can call us out on our shit when we’re failing to succeed or act in the good of the Family.”
“Sounds a whole lot like a Second to me,” Lio says.
I nod. “Yes, but there’s a difference. Notice, I never appointed one. Marcus and Keegan both take on that role for me, but Keegan is the one who steps in the most. He is, for lack of a better term, my Voice. He has all the power of a Second, but his position is clear. He is the voice that our men hear. He is the one who brings me any necessary reports, and he is the one who has worked flawlessly with Jude to keep this Family running alongside me.”
“Rather than Seconds, we need Voices. We need advisors, people we trust to lay down the laws we come up with as a Council. And we need them to work for us as a whole,” Lio muses.
“Yes.”
“So, no more separation,” Roman says. “All three of them will answer to us. They will work in conjunction with each other, and us, so that we can effectively do our jobs.”
